THE STONY HEART REMOVED
Ezek. 36:26-27
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Jeff Doty, Radiologist, had a lady come to his office for abdominal X-rays. She was heavily sedated. But he still had to ask her a lot of questions.
2. The last question was, “Ma’am, where is your pain right now?” Through her medicated fog she replied, “He’s at work.”
3. [USHERS PASS OUT STONES with hearts drawn on them.]
B. ANNUAL CHECKUP
1. Doctor’s recommend that once every year, you have a checkup. Here, at the beginning of a New Year, God wants us to have a spiritual checkup.
2. The condition of your heart - what you are in secret - plays a big part in what kind of a person you are. Jesus and others talked a lot about what kind of hearts we have.
3. WHICH KIND OF HEART DO YOU HAVE?
“Stubborn” Mk. 3:5...........................“Noble and good” Lk. 15:8
“Calloused” Mt. 13:15......................“Pure in Heart” Mt. 5:8
“Hardened” John 12:40....................“Open Hearts” Acts 16:14
“Going astray” Heb. 3:10...................“Burning Hearts” Lk. 24:32
“Entertaining evil” Mt. 9:4..................“Christ dwells in” Eph. 3:17
“Far from God” Mt. 15:8....................“Guard your Heart” Pr. 3:24
“Turning back to Egypt” Acts 7:39.....“Set on Heaven” Col. 3:1
Word “snatched” Mt. 13:19................“Love God with All” Mt.22:37
............................................................“Purify your Heart” Jm. 4:8
4. We need to say with David, “Search me O God & know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps. 139:23-24, KJV.
5. We’ve all heard of DeBakey & Cooley, pioneer heart surgeons, and the first heart transplants they performed. But God was performing heart transplants long before doctors. I believe God wants to do some heart transplants this morning!
C. TEXT & THESIS
1. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ez. 36:26-27.
2. ILLUS. “We Must Be Ready”
a. John Boor worked in a bakery while he went to High School. One day the telephone rang, and the employee who answered it yelled, “He’s Coming!” The ladies ran for their hair nets and the men for their clean aprons & caps. The boss gave everyone special cleanup duties.
b. John wondered who was coming. In a few minutes a man in a suit walked through the front door with a tablet and started checking for cleanliness and health hazards. He worked for the State Board of Health!
c. After he left everyone breathed a sigh of relief and went back to work. One of the ladies explained to John Boor that all the businesses help each other out; when the inspector shows up, they call the surrounding businesses to give warning.
3. When Jesus comes again there won’t be time to receive warning and prepare yourself; you have to stay ready. [Davon Huss] The title of this message is “The Stony Heart Removed.”
I. THE STONY HEART & ITS DANGERS
“I will remove from you your heart of stone” Ez. 36:26.
A. WHY ARE HUMAN HEARTS COMPARED TO STONES?
1. BECAUSE, LIKE A STONE, IT’S COLD.
a. You can heat a stone in a fire, but it won’t stay hot very long; it quickly returns to its natural coldness. If you have stone floors in your house you know how cold they get in winter.
b. God sees some people’s hearts just like that. He sends revival services, or more of the Spirit, and they get warm, but quickly cool back to their natural coldness. There is no natural in-bred fire in them; only coldness toward God. The Lord said, “The love of many shall wax cold.”
2. LIKE A STONE, IT’S HARD.
a. There’s a real heart condition that turns people’s hearts into stone. Around our hearts is a protective sac. In “constrictive pericarditis,” the body begins depositing calcium inside the sac around the heart (like a stalactite in a cavern). It gets stronger & thicker until the muscle of the heart can no longer beat against it. Their heart slowly turns hard as stone! This also happens spiritually!
b. Our spiritual hearts can become so impenetrable that even the razor-edge of the Word won’t cut it & the Holy Spirit’s pricking ceases to wound our consciences.
c. God can rebuke us again & again through circumstances, but we, like Pharaoh before Moses, harden our hearts against God’s dealings. (I pray that’s not true of you!)
3. LIKE A STONE, IT’S DEAD!
a. Paul talked about people being “dead in sins & trespasses.” Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13.
b. The prodigal son was said to be “dead” when living in sin, Lk. 15:24,32.
c. The Lord told the Church at Sardis (Rev. 3:1), “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
d. Are we full of divine life or are we closer to being dead, spiritually?
e. If the Holy Spirit began to pour out in here like rain, would our hearts only get wet on the surface, like stone, or would those living waters penetrate to the interior?
4. SCREWTAPE LETTERS. C.S. Lewis wrote the Screwtape Letters. Screwtape was an assistant devil writing to his nephew, Wormwood. Another letter was Twisttape writing to his apprentice Harshwood.
a. “Dear Harshwood, I’d like to give you one piece of advice. Humans have a very high regard for themselves. They think they are pretty good. They can see faults and sins in others, but only see good in themselves. My advice to you is to encourage that kind of thinking.”
b. “The Chief Antagonizer, that Christ fellow, wants the humans to see their own sins, but Harshwood, blind their eyes, & hearts to that revelation. Let them see that when repentance is called for, it's not them who needs to repent....they’re really better than the guy next to them in the pew. They don’t need repentance or forgiveness.”
c. “When these humans see themselves as great, they’re filled with self-pride and they don’t need that Jesus fellow. Then you’ll have them in your claws. Your Admiring Friend, Twisttape.”
B. DANGERS OF A STONY HEART
1. IF not softened or transplanted, it may be hard to the end of our lives!
a. When you were younger, the Gospel brought tears to your eyes. But after years, you get numb to the old message.
b. Over time, you quit paying serious attention to the preacher. You could go to sleep though the evangelist was yelling, “Fire!” [Familiarity breeds contempt.]
2. Second, if you’re hard-hearted, your heart can get harder still. The same sun that melts butter hardens clay. Whatever people are like during life -- they intensify with age. The sweet get sweeter and the mean get meaner!
3. Last, Hard Hearts may become unreachable! Hard hearts are the devil’s life-guards (like armor). Once you have that armor against truth in place, the devil says, “Now, you can go anywhere.”
a. He can send you under anointed preaching, because you’ll mock at it and ignore it.
b. He can let you read the Bible without fear you will take it seriously or think about applying it to your life.
c. He can let you pray, because your heart is not in it.
4. YOU HAVE A HEART OF STONE! YOU NEED TO LET GOD REMOVE IT – BY THE SACRIFICE & BLOOD OF CHRIST & give you a new heart!
II. THE HEART OF FLESH & ITS PRIVILEGES
God says, “I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
A. WHAT’S MEANT BY “A HEART OF FLESH”
1. It’s a heart that can feel/sensitive to right & wrong;
...it yields when it hears the Gospel;
...it’s warm and easily molded;
...it’s a loving heart – abounding with hope & faith.
2. Tenderness of Conscience.
a. Temptation is enough. The tender heart is alarmed at the very approach of evil.
b. If it sins, the tender heart bleeds are though it were wounded to its core. It hates & loathes & detests itself for sinning.
c. IN CONTRAST, The Stony Heart can 1). think of sin with pleasure; 2). Can live in sin & not care; and 3). After sinning can say, “My conscience isn’t bothering me.”
3. HEARTS OF FLESH WANT TO DO GOD’S WILL
a. If some good deed is omitted, they grieve.
b. If they see they’re lax in prayer or didn’t honor God, they feel it’s as bad as if they’d sinned.
c. A Heart of Stone can hear God blasphemed & laugh at it. The Heart of Flesh? Their blood runs cold if hearing it.
d. The Heart of Stone doesn’t care if others are lost. A Heart of Flesh would sacrifice itself to snatch them from the jaws of Hell.
B. REWARDS OF THE TENDER-HEARTED?
1. Jesus makes it His throne and the Holy Spirit dwells there.
2. It’s ready to receive every spiritual blessing.
3. It has every heavenly fruit, to God’s glory.
CONCLUSION
Q – How is our heart changed? By Repentance: sorrow for & turning from sin & by receiving the blood of Jesus!
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Chet Szuber had the classic symptoms of a defective heart: Chest pain & tightness, shortness of breath, weakness in his legs & arms. A Cardiologist examined him and said his heart was so bad that his only hope was a heart-transplant, but the match would have to be perfect.
2. Chet’s 20 year-old daughter, Patti, couldn’t imagine living without him, so she tirelessly applied and search for a heart donor. Then the unthinkable happened: Patti was killed in a car wreck, but kept alive by life-support.
3. Chet’s cardiologist saw him at the hospital and suggested he use his daughter’s heart. At first Chet revolted at the idea, but then he thought of how much Patti loved him, and that she would have begged that he do it. At last, he agreed.
4. The surgery was a success. CBS News interviewed Chet. He said he feels closer to Patti than ever before, for he hears her heart beating in his chest!
5. That’s like the new life God gives us – we need to have the heart of Jesus put inside us! It alone can give you new life. We ALL MUST have this new life from God! [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/saved-by-his-daughters-heart/]
B. THE CALL
1. Each of you have been given a stone representing your heart. All of our hearts are hard to some extent. Today we’re spending time repenting, asking God to forgive us our sins and to give us tender hearts.
2. The musicians are starting to sing “What Can Wash Away My Sin? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus,” etc. As you listen & hold your stone, think of all the sins you’ve done in your life. Begin to repent of them.
3. When you’ve done that, come & KNEEL AT THE ALTAR. Ask God to CHANGE YOUR HEART; to take out your heart of stone and GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH. Please don’t be in a hurry.
4. When you’ve finished, place your heart of stone in the box by the pulpit and go back to your seat. Please remain there in prayer until the service is dismissed.
[This is a rewrite of Charles Spurgeon’s sermon of the same title.]
